25 legitimately useful sites for college students

Sites for Every Student

• Rate My Professor - This site is great for college students who are planning their class schedule. It features ratings for more than one million professors around the world. Professors are rated by more than 6.8 million students.
• Text Swap - Text Swap is a free textbook exchange service for students who want to be able to trade their used textbooks online.
• Backpack - Backpack is the ultimate organizational web app for college students. Backpack allows users to take notes online, create to-do lists, keep schedules online and much more.
• Student Loan Calculator - This student loan calculator from the College Board makes it easy for college students to stay on top of their student loan payments.
• Study Hacks - Study Hacks is dedicated to 'demystifying student success.' This college blog has become one of the best places on the web to get study advice and academic strategies that actually work.

Sites for Student Researchers

• RefDesk - This award-winning site is a great place to find and check facts. RefDesk has an enormous collection of reference materials, searchable databases and other great resources that can't be found anywhere else.
• Internet Public Library - The Internet Public Library is an online reference service that offers everything from free dictionaries and encyclopedias to books, magazines and newspapers.
• Encylcopedia.com - This site hosts 49 high-quality encyclopedias (Oxford University Press, Britannica, etc.) and 73 dictionaries and thesauruses. Encylcopedia.com users can also search through facts and biographies.
• ChaCha - ChaCha isn't exactly a citable source, but it's a fantastic starting point for research. This human powered search engine has more than 15,000 guides who are dedicated to answering any question you might have.
• American Fact Finder - The American Fact Finder, from the U.S. Census Bureau, is a great place for student researchers to find economic, geographic, population and housing data.

Sites for Student Writers

• Essay Punch - Essay Punch is an interactive online essay writing tutorial. It helps students organize thoughts and improve their essay writing skills.
• The Owl - Purdue University's Online Writing Lab (OWL) is a great resource for student writers who want to learn more about writing mechanics, formatting, outline development and avoiding plagiarism.
• Wridea - Wridea is a free online idea management service that is designed to help writers brainstorm, organize and improve their ideas.
• Grubba - Big writing projects sometimes require the creation of a database to keep ideas organized. Grubba is perfect for student writers who want to quickly create a database that can be shared with other people.
• Bib Me - Student writers will love Bib Me. This bibliography generator automatically fills in a works cited page in MLA, APA, Chicago or Turbian formats.

Sites for Students Who Read

• The Online Books Page - This University of Pennsylvania website has more than 30,000 books that anyone can read for free online. Users can search by title or author.
• Project Gutenberg - There are more than 25,000 free books in Project Gutenberg's online catalog and an additional 100,000 books available from the site's partners and affiliates.
• Open Book Project - The Open Book Project is designed specifically for the academic community. Students can find free textbooks and other open source education materials.
• Questia - Students can read more than 5,000 free books online when they visit Questia's online library. The site offers rare and classic books.
• SparkNotes - When you need to catch up on reading that you missed or want to gain a better understanding of specific books, SparkNotes is the place to be. The site offers literary summaries, essay help, timelines and much more.

Courtesy of http://education-portal.com/articles/25_Legitimately_Useful_Sites_for_College_Students.html

Mark Zuckerburg speaks out against the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA)

As a few of the world's largest websites staged online protests to the Stop Online Piracy Act and Protect IP Act, Facebook's CEO Mark Zuckerberg took to his site to voice his opposition to the controversial bills. 

"The Internet is the most powerful tool we have for creating a more open and connected world," Zuckerberg said today in his Facebook post. "We can't let poorly thought out laws get in the way of the Internet's development. Facebook opposes SOPA and PIPA, and we will continue to oppose any laws that will hurt the Internet." 

More so than stopping these two bills, Zuckerberg made a call for government officials who are see the Internet the same way he does, as that powerful, world-changing tool: 

"The world today needs political leaders who are pro-Internet. We have been working with many of these folks for months on better alternatives to these current proposals," he said. "I encourage you to learn more about these issues and tell your congressmen that you want them to be pro-Internet."

[Facebook via Mashable]

Happy Birthday to Muhammad Ali!! 70 years of Greatness!!!

The Benefits of Financial Planning as a College Student!

If you have just graduated from college it is the perfect time to be thinking about financial planning. While retirement might seem far off, there are other issues that you should be planning for as soon as you graduate. Student loans will be staring you in the face soon and what happens if you want to get married and start a family? Housing and car payments will also have to be planned for, so it is best to start early.

Budgeting your money and having a financial plan are insurance against not having enough money. If you plan ahead and know where your money is coming from, and where it is going, you will be in control of your finances. Knowing what you have, and what your goals are, will allow you to be proactive instead of reactive. This is exactly what you want out of a financial plan and you want to give yourself assets to get out of a crisis should one come up.

One of the easiest ways to save money is to have affordable medical coverage. You can find cheap insurance quotes online at most company websites, and in the resources section of this site. Having medical protection will make it more affordable to go to the doctor, or to the hospital if you have an emergency. Other products such as life insurance and annuities are worth looking into to help your financial planning as well.

Starting a savings routine early can make it easier to take advantage of your savings. If you start putting money into a retirement account when you are 22, you will end up with roughly a million dollars more than if you start saving for retirement at age 32. That is a huge incentive to start saving as soon as you are out of college and start planning for your future.

Remember that a lot of employers will match and 401k contributions up to around 5 percent of your salary. Investing in an IRA (Individual Retirement Account) is tax deferred in some cases, so that can help you save money as well. Investing in the stock market, or mutual funds, could give you the money you need to put a down payment on a house, or support a child. Even in this down economy, the stock market is still a great place to put your money.

The bottom line is that it is never too early to save for your future and to have a solid plan for your finances. The sooner you start planning for your future, the easier it is going to be to adjust your plan should something change like your job status or you have a medical emergency.

Couresy of Collegenews.com

Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day from (Y2Y)

Facebook + Music = "Listen With" Feature

Facebook has launched a new feature that allows a user to listen to music along with their friends.

For example, if a friend is listening to Jay-Z via Spotify, clicking on the “Listen With” button will allow you to listen with them.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said, “Being able to click on someone’s music and play it it’s a great experience, but knowing that you helped a friend discover something new is awesome.”

Creating somewhat of a big dance party, the “Listen With” feature also allows other friends to listen in and chat.

To keep up with privacy issues, Facebook gives the option of choosing who you  share your listening activity with. So someone that can’t see your listening activity won’t be able to see that you are listening with a friend.

According to Facebook, “You can control privacy settings in music apps when you install the app or on your App Settings page after you've installed the app. You can also remove songs you listened to from your timeline on your private activity log.”

Courtesy of Collegenews.com